Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 337: Godbyes
The family went outside the cave. They stood around Naruto to say their goodbyes.
Ino hugged him tightly. "I'm going to miss you…"
Naruto caressed her hair. "I will miss you too. It was a fun life that we had together. I promise never to forget about it, no matter how long I live."
He cleaned the tears from her eyes. "No need to cry today. This is a happy occasion."
Ino smiled. "I know."
Hinata went next. "What am I going to do without you?"
Naruto glanced at his wife. "You are one of the strongest persons I have ever met in all my lives. I'm sure you will be fine without me. But try to enjoy the time you have left, if you can."
Hinata nodded. "I will try… promise."
"Father." Naruto heard his daughter call for him.
Hana was his youngest daughter and the last child he had. Despite this, she was the most similar to himself and the one with the most talent for cultivation.
"Hana, I will leave it to you to fulfill my promise. For the next twenty years, don't let anyone touch Konoha. If someone dares…"
"I will destroy them," she responded with no hesitation.
Naruto had passed upon her his old cultivation method, the Crimson Dragon Ascend. She was extremely compatible with it, due to her high affinity to the fire element.
He wasn't sure how far she could go in this world, since the energy density was not the best. It was not very likely for her to ascend in the future. However, he had no doubt that at the very least, she would continue to stand as a powerhouse at the top of this world.
"That's my girl," he said with pride. "I taught you as much as I could. The rest is up to you."
She bowed to him. "Thank you, Father." Hana saw Naruto first as a master and second as her father, so her attitude was always polite but somewhat distant. "Leave it to me. I will not disappoint you."
"Of course you won't…" Shinobu said with a tinge of bitterness in his voice. Both he and his older sister were always aware of who the favorite child was.
Ino gave him a look of disapproval. "Be nice, Shinobu. Go say goodbye to your father before it's too late."
"I see you are still resentful for what happened to Himawari." Naruto knew that his son never agreed nor understood his decision when it came to the fate of his sister.
"I can't help it, Father," Shinobu responded. His sister had been dead for decades now, but he never forgave his father for refusing to bring her back with the power of the Rinnegan.
Of course, Naruto had a good reason for this. She died during a mission, and they never recovered the body because it was apparently destroyed during the battle.
On top of that, several weeks had passed since her death until they found out what had transpired.
When he learned what had occurred, Naruto was enraged and went to look for the culprits. Someone from a distant land called the Land of the Moon had been waiting for an opportunity to get revenge on Naruto's family.
Their motives were flimsy at best and Naruto didn't really care for them in any case. He just destroyed the entire island to make an example.
Once it was all over, he decided to allow his daughter's soul to rest and reincarnate in peace. This was the natural order of things for those who didn't pursue the road of the cultivator.
Trying to interfere with that would only lead to disaster.
This was a piece of wisdom that he had learned over the many centuries he had been alive. But it was not strange that his son Shinobu would fail to understand this, even if he had explained it to him.
"It's okay to be angry, Shinobu. I understand," Naruto finally said.
"Father…" Shinobu clenched his fists. It was difficult to stay angry at him if he never reacted. And now he was going away, and he would never see him again.
"Go stand with your mother. I'm going to need some space now," Naruto told him.
Shinobu went to where his family was standing. They had moved a good distance away.
He looked at his mother, but her attention was clearly somewhere else right now.
"Don't you need to say anything else to Father?" She had barely exchanged a few words.
Ino chuckled. "Oh, I think I said everything I wanted to say last night."
"Last night?" Shinobu asked.
"Shh!" Hana shushed him. "Don't bring that up now. I had to leave the cave in a rush when they started to get nasty."
"Hana, don't be so vulgar," Hinata frowned.
"Eh? Are you serious… at your age? Still…" Shinobu was at a loss for words.
"Hmph!" Ino huffed. "I'll let you know that I still feel very young." Despite her age being close to her nineties, she didn't feel older than forty and was still filled with energy thanks to everything that Naruto had given her and Hinata.
"Focus," Hinata called. "He is starting."
The aura around Naruto began to change, and they all started to feel a powerful force forming around them.
"Are we safe at this distance?" Shinobu asked. They were only fifty feet away or so.
"The ascension shouldn't be too violent," Hana responded. She had spent her entire life learning everything she could about cultivation, so among the members of the family, no one was more knowledgeable than her.
"Father is now using purely Divine Energy and not chakra, like everyone else does. That's why we can't even feel the energy forming around his body but we felt the pressure."
"Now that you mention it…" Shinobu noticed it too. He had always been very sensitive when it came to chakra, but he was not feeling anything from Naruto. If he didn't know any better, he would think that the person over there was just a normal civilian.
Naruto's eyes moved to look at the sky. "Here I come."